Double X's new column, "Modern Love Revenge," is potentially pretty genius - provided, that is, the subjects are as prone to soul-baring as the original authors. Although Audrey Bethel, whose lack of communication causes mom Maynard to break into her email and discover a scary situation, you may recall - seems perfectly ready to go public, albeit in more diplomatic terms. Bethel's response is more measured and less personal than her mother's - but there are plenty of small digs in there.

It's pretty clear from Audrey's - and her mom's - pieces that living material is no novelty in the Bethel-Maynard house. As Audrey says, "My mother, Joyce Maynard, writes for a living, so I have spent my life learning that an event recounted by one person might not sound like the same event when recounted by another person, even if she was there, and witnessed it, and was at the center of it. It can be frustrating for me to let my mother own her stories-and by proxy, the stories of the people close to her." (As the daughter of two writers, I should point out here that this isn't typical. It probably is, though, of writers who write regularly about their own first-person.) "Over the years, my mother has often written works of nonfiction detailing my family's life and times-but never had anything so intimate or inherently mine to tell been the topic of her writing."

Here, Audrey reproduces the oddly loaded email her mom sent her before running the piece.

Dear Aud, I have written an essay that I need to show you. An editor at the New York Times would like to publish it, but I will not do this unless you can feel alright about this. I am guessing that if you could have chosen, you would prefer to have a mother who did not, as I do, write about her life. Though of course, if that were the case, you would have a totally different mother. And be a different person yourself.

And if that, in context, seems passive-aggressive - kind of defiant and impotent (how did "The New York Times" see this essay before Audrey granted her permission? Magic?) - check out this line: "I knew her primary purpose was not to write an academic piece to raise social consciousness, but I still felt strongly that the original draft of my mother's piece perpetuated certain stereotypes and assumptions. I knew how much she wanted me to tell her to go ahead with the piece, especially since it would be good publicity to coincide with her new book coming out."

Holy underlying tensions, Batman! In the end, Audrey, obviously a good sport, works with her mother to edit the piece into a compromise that acknowledges the social issues close to her heart. But her ambivalence, in the article, is palpable. And if this retort isn't an act of veiled aggression, I've never seen one. Sure, we know these people only by what they've shown us - maybe it's no relation to who they are in real life. But as characters in a public drama, they're choosing to paint quite a fraught picture. It would be interesting to see the exchange in which Audrey informed her mother of this piece - if in fact she did. Having made her, by her own admission, who she is by dint of her oversharing, Maynard could hardly object.

[Image via JoyceMaynard.com]

Modern Love Revenge: Joyce Maynard's Daughter Gets Her Turn To Speak[XX]

Related: Joyce Maynard Looks Back On Life?

In the two-hour documentary—which was filmed and produced by RadarOnline and aired last night on Fox—Nadya admitted that she resents herself because she sees how her six older children have been negatively affected by the birth of the octuplets, saying, "I screwed up my life, I screwed up my kids' lives. I have to put up this strong facade and pretend like I don't regret it."

And while her circumstances have been brought about by her own actions, it must be really hard to have your 7-year-old say to you:

And even harder to have your 2-year-old call you a:

Her son Caleb seems to be the most badly-behaved of her 14 children; of course it could probably be chalked up to the "terrible twos." However, he definitely exhibited a violent streak, getting aggressive with the camera people, kicking one of the infants in the head, and slapping his mother across the face when he was ordered into a "time out."

In fact, all of the older children appeared to hate being filmed by the camera crew, and repeatedly ran away, smacked the cameras, cried. Still, Nadya is interested in doing a reality show, as she thinks that it will be beneficial for her children by providing opportunities for "adventures" and travel.

Actually, the camera people seemed to annoy everyone except Nadya. Below is the video of the octuplets' birth; everyone in the operating room was pissed off that it was being filmed.

It seems odd that Nadya would want any additional attention or scrutiny—of the kind the Gosselins are subjected to—since she seems to have become so paranoid by her experiences as a public figure thus far. This was one extreme example:

Nadya believes that her home is haunted because her nannies (five on day shift, four on night shift) told her that they heard "footsteps and running around upstairs." (Nadya later freaked out when she was on the toilet and heard someone whisper "Mommy.") Such incidents would be par for the course in a house of 14 children, but it freaked her out enough that she bought bibles for each room in the house.

It also seemed strange to me that Nadya would be so easily influenced by her nannies, since she's had so many problems with them. (One of them bizarrely kept making jokes about abducting the infants, leading to all of the nannies eventually being fired.)

Lastly, here are 10 factoids learned from Octomom:

1.) Nadya trademarked "Octomom."
2.) Nadya claims to never have had any plastic surgery or lip plumping.
3.) Nadya never worked as a stripper, as some tabloids reported.
4.) Nadya loves chocolate.
5.) Nadya has not had sex in over nine years.
6.) Nadya doesn't like when people say the word "sex."
7.) Nadya secretly wanted the biological father of her children to be in their lives, but told him until a year ago.
8.) Nadya hopes that one day the biological father will choose to reveal his identity to the world.
9.) Nadya's mom said, "I haven't forgiven [my daughter] yet. I'm not comfortable in her presence anymore."
10.) None of Nadya's children wanted to wish her "Happy Mother's Day" on Mother's Day.

It was a grim night all around.

Of her bad-idea-jeans choice to implant herself — already a single mother with six children — with a slew of embryos, Suleman says, "because I see my older kids and I see how they're negatively affected and I resent myself. I screwed up my life, I screwed up my kids' lives. I have to put up this strong facade and pretend like i don't regret it."

To drive that point home further:

After her first child was born, Heather suffered from a debilitating bout of postpartum depression, and said that her blog was a lifeline, because she was able to share stories with other women who felt similarly, and was reassured that what she was going through was normal. Today, Heather and her husband work full-time on her blog, and rake in $40,000 a month in advertising.

• The Perfectionist Mother — whose family must look perfect in every way
• The Unpredictable Mother- whose ups and downs can create lifelong anxiety and depression in her son or daughter
• The "Me First" Mother — whose children come second or last
• The "Best Friend" Mother — who's now in vogue but can wreak havoc
• The Complete Mother- who provides guidance and shows compassion to her child

• The Clueless Mom — who really believes you were "studying" when you come home with grass on your back and doesn't know what that pretty glass vase in your room is really for
• The Alarmist Mom — who thinks the desks at school might be made with carcinogenic materials and wonders if your moles are "growing" and assumes you're dead if you don't call exactly at 11p.m.
• The Mean Mom — who grounds you first, asks questions later. Hates your boyfriends, tells you you're going nowhere fast. New friends come over once and never again. Capable of withering plants with a single gaze.
• The Old-Country Mom — who was born elsewhere and uses you as an interpreter, ambassador and errand-runner. Understands more English than she lets on but pretends not to. Just wants you to marry a nice boy.
• The Stage Mom — who pushes you into fame but hates being left behind; wants to share (or steal) the spotlight. See: Lohan, Dina; Rocky.

How Your Mother's Emotional Legacy Impacts Your Life [EurekAlert]

Earlier: Being A "Cool" Mom Isn't Very Good For The Kids

She'll call me and she'll say, "Why didn't anyone tell you your collar was askew? Why did you wear that suit with that shirt?" Oh, Mother, please!

And clearly, because he has mommy issues, he's able to not just talk fashion, but play therapist:

Yes, my work in the new show is definitely tied into the psyche. People put on certain clothes for certain reasons, I assume, when their closet is filled with clothes. I try to say to the subjects, "Don't personalize this. I'm not saying you're bad, I'm saying the dress is bad. The dress doesn't work for you." And, "Why would you want to wear something that isn't showing you off at your best?" And if they answer, "Well, I really like this!" I say, "OK, I appreciate that. I respect it. You like it. But look at it on you. Do you see what I mean now?" And eventually they begin to get it.